Olympic team victims complained for two decades. Nobody cared much. How dare they question a doctor?

For 20 years he was an extremely well-known sports physician in the tight-knit community of world-class gymnastics. He routinely treated many of the finest female athletes on the planet. He was the USA team doctor for gymnasts at 4 Olympics in a row. So nobody really wanted to know that he was a sexual predator behind closed doors.

U.S. Olympic gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar at work

His name is doctor Larry Nassar, and now his impossibly successful career has come crashing down around him. Today,Nassar is in federal custodyon felony charges of Child Pornography, and faces numerous charges of Criminal Sexual Conduct involving a child over a 6-year period. Several dozen other women and girls are alleging sexual assault dating back to at least 1994 and continuing into last year.

Investigators now know that the doctor deleted evidence of child porn on his laptop computer as he was under investigation last September. Nassar, age 54, has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.

Perhaps the most exasperating aspect of the now-exploding sex scandal is that it took two decadesof complaints for Nassar to finally be arrested. Some of the apparent victims say they were reporting their shocking experiences, for years, to coaches and counselors, parents and others. What exactly were they saying? That Nassar was placing his fingers into their rectums and vaginas, for treatments that were supposed to addressleg, hip and back injuries.

The upcoming trial does not merely reflect on Larry Nassar’s reputation. Also involved in the controversy is Michigan State University, where Nassar was a faculty member from 1997 till 2016. AndUSA Gymnastics, for whom Nassarfunctioned as chief medical coordinator; and Twistars, a majorgymnastics training facility in Lansing.

In late 1997 one athlete told police she complained to hercoach Kathie Klages. She was upset about the way the doctor conducted his “treatments.” She now alleges in a civil lawsuit that coach Klages discouraged her from filing a formal complaint.

In 1997, one parent complained to Twistars owner John Geddert about the doctor’s “inappropriate touching” of his daughter. Geddert not only refused to look into what was claimed, but continued to support Nassar as team physician.

In 1999, a track athlete reported that the doctor was “putting his fingers in my vagina” during treatment for a leg strain. She was reportedly told her that Nassar was “an Olympic doctor and knew what he was doing.”

In 2000, gymnast Rachal Denhollander says she was abused by Nassar when she was 15 years old at theMSU sports medicine clinic. When she reported what happened, the coach advised her to keep quiet.

In 2004, a criminal complaint was filed with Meridian Township Police by a Nassar patient alleging sexual abuse. Police won’t say why they closed the case without seeking criminal charges.

In 2014, another police report filed by a different woman alleged abuse during medical treatment. The case was referred to the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office, which declined to press charges after they recognized “it could be a legitimate medical procedure.”

In the summer of 2015, USA Gymnastics finally terminated Nassar when the talk of “athlete concerns” got louder. But Michigan State University says they were “never told” of those concerns. So Nassar continued to touch the female athlete’s MSU’s sports clinic for another year, as well as treating girls from Twistars.

USA Gymnastics said in a statement the organization contacted the FBI “immediately” in 2015 after they learned of allegations and relieved Nassar of duties.

Gymnast Rachal Denhollander told investigators she failed to call police for more than 15 years because, “I was 100% sure that I would not be believed.”

Nassar “was USAG’s golden boy,” she said. “He was so loved in the community that I was very sure . . . I would be crucified and he would end up empowered, knowing he couldn’t get caught.”

Denhollander finally came forward in August 2016 after she read an Indianapolis Star story on USA Gymnastics‘ apparent mishandling of sexual assault complaints. She contacted police, which led to a news story in which Denhollander and another former Olympic medalist detailed their reported assaults by the doctor.

As of last month, at least 50 women and girls have filed criminal complaints. They are being investigated by theMichigan Attorney General’s office, and at least 26 women have filed lawsuits.

“This was all avoidable, if someone had just taken action back in 1997 when this was first reported. When you’ve got teenage girls telling coaches that a doctor is putting his hand inside their vagina for 30 minutes, with no gloves or medical reason, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out your next step.” (an attorney familiar with the case)

One former Olympic gymnast from Los Angeles told authorities she first came into contact with Nassar in 1994, as a young teen. She said the doctor told her she needed “intravaginal adjustments” – treatments involving vaginal and anal penetration, performed without gloves and with no one else in the room, her lawsuit says. Some of these treatments occurred in her hotel room while traveling for competitions.

Criminal complaints were brought before police at least twice. Neither investigation resulted in charges being filed.

The first occurred in 2004, when a report was filed with Meridian Township police by a 16-year old student athlete, claiming Nassar touched her vagina and breasts, according to a lawsuit. Police confirm the existence of the report, which was closed without charges being sought, but say it cannot be released because of the current criminal investigation.

USA Gymnastics did not tell Michigan State in 2015 about allegations involving Nassar, who continued seeing patients at MSU until he was suspended in August 2016, shortly after Denhollander filed a police report. As more complaints flooded in, Nassar was fired 3 weeks later.

Our culture of enabling medical monsters

“This whole epidemic of sexual abuse was entirely preventable. It should have been stopped after the first athlete made a report. It certainly should have stopped after a second athlete made a report.” (the prosecution)

And so now, Doctor Larry Nassar – longtime doctor at Michigan State and USAGymnastics, has been ordered to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting 6 young gymnasts, who said he molested them while they were seeking treatment for various injuries.

(We are indebted to investigative reporters Julie Mack and Emily Lawler for their terrific research)

For their despicable wealth-building roles in an outrageous and lethal drug-dealing operation, two Alabama physicians have now been sent off to prison for at least the next 2 decades.

Dr Xiulu Ruan: a drug-dealer and one of his perks

Doctor John Patrick Couch received a 20-year federal prison term on May 25, and was ordered to repay the $15,000,000 to the insurance companies he robbed.

His buddy-in-crime, Doctor Xiulu Ruan, was sentenced to 21 years the next day, and he too will repay the millions he stole.

The doctor do-bad duo were found by investigators to have defrauded numerous insurance companies in a scheme they manipulatedout of their pain management clinic in the city of Mobile. As an example, they wrote out more than 65,000 narcotic prescriptions in the year 2014 alone – more than 100 every day the clinic was open.

Dr John P Couch and Dr Xiulu Ruan: Just your friendly drug dealers down the street

The daft doctors’ downfall actually began in 2015, when U.S. DEA agents raided the clinic called Physicians Pain Specialists of Alabama.

At trial prosecutors were able to prove the pill-pushing physicians were raking in thousands of dollar each day by using their clinic – as well as the C&R Pharmacy they owned – to prescribe thousands of doses of narcotics to patients with no need, and then fraudulently bill insurance payers.

The DEA and prosecutors discovered that Couch and Ruan had raked in millions by overprescribing potent narcotic pain medications; had ignored signs that clinic nurses were stealing drugs and working while impaired; had systematically handled patients in a way designed to maximize payouts from insurance companies; and had collected speaking fees and other payments that essentially were kickbacks. The array of charges included money laundering, mail and wire fraud and even a violation of the RICO organized crime statute.

The trial, which lasted nearly 2 months, involved more than 75 witnesses testifying.

Following their convictions, both doctors were ordered to forfeit their homes, vacation condos, and bank accounts. They lost the 23 exotic cars they had accumulated, including multiple Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Bentleys. All will be sold at U.S. government asset auctions.

In Detroit Michigan still another immigrant physician has been found guilty in the never-ending string of monstrous health fraud scams. And Detroit seems to routinely churn out as many MD-crooks as any other city in the U.S.

Doctor Sardar Ashrafkhan, age 59 and a resident of Ypsilanti, owned and operated a sham home-health company irrationally called Compassionate Doctors, which for years had convinced insurance companies they were providing physician-level, home-bound patient care all across metro Detroit.

No they weren’t.

According to FBI Special Agent David Gelios, Ashrafkhan, who immigrated to America from Pakistan in 1991, built a stunning criminal enterprise that brought in more than $8,000,000 between 2006-2013.

Agent Gelios said recruiters would pay “patients” to see criminal doctors who conducted fraudulent – or non-existent – exams and then billed Medicare and private insurers. The doctors would write prescriptions to the patients, who would then get the drugs from criminal pharmacists. They were then paid cash for their participation and the drugs were given back to the Compassionate Doctors scamsters, who sold them illegally.

“It was a scheme that involved recruiters delivering so-called patients to get bogus prescriptions for narcotics. Medicare was then billed for medical exams that were not conducted. Marketers filled the prescriptions at corrupt pharmacies and sold the drugs on the street.” (The U.S. Attorney’ Office)

Investigators estimated Ashrafkhan himself, prescribed more than 1,000,000 doses of highly addictive opiate painkillers, and 3,000,000 doses of other drugs.

Now, this drug dealer in a lab coat has been sentenced to 23 years in federal prison. He is but one of countless hundreds of foreign doctors who come to the U.S. and fleece the medical insurance system. Ashrafkhan’s case resulted in the arrest of 44 other scamsters participating in the fraud, among whom 6 are doctors and 5 are corrupt pharmacists.

Government investigators in Trinidad say they are looking into multiple reports that Conrad Murray is back to treating patients illegally – this time at a small, private clinic. Murray was stripped of his medical license in the United States after he was found guilty of killing entertainment legend Michael Jackson in California in 2011.

Trinidad and Tobago is a dual-island nation in the Caribbean near Venezuela. Its capital city is Port of Spain, where Murray now lives. In a statement to the media, the Ministry of Health of that country reported they were joining with the Medical Board of Trinidad and Tobago to determine the facts in the case.

Conrad Murray, now age 64, was convicted of deliberately and routinely overdosing the world’s most famous singer in June, 2009, at a private estate in Los Angeles. An extremely careless physician, Murray was paid $3,000 a night to hook up IV lines and run the powerful surgical anesthetic Propofol into his very famous – and seriously drug-addicted – patient. Even the dumbest doctor in the room knows that a Propofol-anesthetized patient should at the very least be hooked up to an EKG monitor and oxygen. Murray had neither. And on the morning Jackson finally stopped breathing and died, Murray spent at least 20 minutes hiding evidence of what he was doing, before he called for help.

During Murray’s Homicide trial, the 911 operator stated that Murray – a heart specialist – was unable to tell them the home’s address, even though he had been there many times. And according to Michael Jackson’s security detail, the doctor had no idea how to perform CPR, and asked them if they did.

Murray was born and raised in St. Andrews Grenada. He left California after spending a jaw-dropping 2 years in jail for killing Michael Jackson, “involuntarily.”

Trust us: for $3,000 a night . . . everything this drug-dealer did was voluntary.